cable
the crude table implements of that time. It need not be pointed out that
Twentieth Century appurtenances in a Thirteenth or Fifteenth Century room
are anachronisms. But because the dining-table in the replica of a palace
(whether English, Italian, Spanish or French) may be equipped with great
"standing cups" and candelabra so heavy a man can scarcely lift one, it
does not follow that all the rest of us who live in medium or small
houses, should attempt anything of the sort. Nothing could be more out of
proportion--and therefore in worse taste. Nor is it necessary, in order to
have a table that is inviting, to set it with any of the completely
exquisite things which all people of taste long for, but which are
possessed (in quantity at least) only through wealth, inheritance, or
"collector's luck."

=A PLEASING DINING-ROOM AT LIMITED COST=

Enchanting dining-rooms and tables have been achieved with an outlay
amounting to comparatively nothing.

There is a dining-room in a certain small New York house that is quite as
inviting as it is lacking in expensiveness. Its walls are rough-plastered
"French gray." Its table is an ordinary drop-leaf kitchen one painted a
light green that is almost gray; the chairs are wooden ones, somewhat on
the Windsor variety, but made of pine and painted like the table, and the
side tables or consoles are made of a cheap round pine table which has
been sawed in half, painted gray-green, and the legless sides fastened to
the walls. The glass curtains are point d'esprit net with a deep flounce
at the bottom and outside curtains are (expensive) watermelon pink
changeable taffeta. There is a gilt mirror over a cream (absolutely plain)
mantel and over each console a picture of a conventional bouquet of
flowers in a flat frame the color of the furniture, with the watermelon
color of the curtains predominating in a neutral tint background. The
table is set with a rather coarse cream-colored linen drawn-work
centerpiece (a tea cloth actually) big enough to cover all but three
inches of table edge. In the middle of the table is a glass bowl with a
wide turn-over rim, holding deep pink flowers (roses or tulips) standing
upright in glass flower holders as though growing. In midwinter, when real
flowers are too expensive, porcelain ones take their place--unless there
is a lunch or dinner party. The compotiers are glass urns and the only
pieces of silver used are two tall Sheffield candelabra at ni